MY NEW KNEES, TRIPS, and BABY!!! 2010

Better late than never. I really need to blog about my past year with two total knee replacement surgeries, two wonderful trips, and a new grandbaby. First the knees.....WOW & OUCH!!! The only way to describe my past year. I really feel like I spent the entire 2010 year either having surgeries or recovering from them. I had both of my knees replaced, one March 11th and the other on October 19th. I really had no choice. They were both full of arthritis and bone-on-bone. Every step I took was very painful. I spent 6 days in the hospital with #1 and 5 days with #2. With each one I had 3 weeks worth of blood thinning shots (administered with glee by my sweet husband - I had to keep reminding him that I wasn't a cow and he didn't need to stab me that hard!), 3 weeks on a continuous motion knee machine where I almost went insane with boredom, and 2 painful months doing physical therapy (loved the PT ladies, just hated what they did to me!) Wayne was my nurse and I couldn't have asked for anyone better. He took great care of me, took over the house and meals and laundry, was my biggest cheerleader with his positive comments on how much better I was doing than "last week", and gave me my pills. However, after 2 1/2 weeks he did say that I didn't need the "narcs" anymore and he didn't want me to get hooked. He was right.....I really didn't need them! Thank goodness for insurance. After paying my $2500 in deductible and $2500 in co-pays with the first surgery, the second one was actually paid for. The surgeries were about $35,000 each which included, I think, the titanium knee itself which was well over $20,000. Anyway, sure glad it is over and they feel SO MUCH BETTER! I ride my stationary bike most every day to keep them bending and I hope to get more strength back in them as time goes on. But as for now, I am very happy that I did it. I couldn't say that for about three months after each surgery. Thought I'd made a big mistake. The recovery time was something else! Between surgeries we went to Wisconsin in May to see Jeff graduate from Vet School. We rented a car and drove home on I-80 seeing sights along the way including a visit to the Nauvoo Temple, Denver Temple, and Arches National Park. The new right knee survived quite well. The not-yet-done left knee revolted majorly! In September we drove Jeff's car to his new home in Colby Wisconsin and saw the sights along the way on I-94 (I think), spent some fun days with our kids and baby Michael there while Wayne was Jeff's vet tech for a couple of days, then we flew home. Shortly afterwards our 18th grandchild was born, beautiful Addison Lee Ballif, to Kelly and Bob. Yes, we really had an eventful year!!!